78 finally get home from North Africa

A holiday filled with souqs and lantern-lit dinners in Morocco, and a contract in Ivory Coast to bolster a family’s finances with visits to rainforests on days off all came to a screeching halt when the world closed down due to the coronavirus.

For thousands of South Africans who did not make it through boarding gates before travel bans kicked in, the interventions to keep everybody in one place to “flatten the curve” has led to dreadful isolation – and in many instances, financial devastation.

But a repatriation flight organised by the volunteer project, Home Away From Home (HAFH) and carrying 74 South Africans flew over Africa on Saturday.

While being stuck in Morocco may sound dreamy, according to HAFH volunteer Beverley Schaefer, an MPL in the Western Cape, it was anything but.

“Some people have been stuck in hotel rooms for two months,” said Schaefer, who is deputy speaker in the provincial legislature. “We have also helped some get the medication they need.”

She added the lockdown had taken a terrible psychological toll on many of the people, who seemed to have been overlooked for repatriation flights from Egypt.

Citizens stranded in that region of Africa were overlooked for repatriation, so Saturday’s flight came as a relief to its passengers.

According to posts on Facebook, the departures were fraught with administrative red tape, including which quarantine facility they had to go to.

Schaefer said almost 6 000 people had been repatriated through HAFH so far, with the help of Cem-Air and charter flights. – News24 Wire